
MadeGood: Salma and Nima Fotovat Lost Their First Business.They Grew Their Next One Into a Snack Giant.
From How I Built This with Guy Raz by Guy Raz | Wondery
August 3, 2026 · 1h 9m · Episode 860
About this episode
Salma and Nima Fotovat discuss their journey from losing their first business to building MadeGood, a successful allergen-free snack brand.
What do you do when the family business you've spent decades building... gets bought out from under you? That’s what happened to Nima and Salma Fotovat. Devastated, the family rebuilt a new company from the ground up. This time they set out with a new idea: build an allergen-free, organic snack brand not just for kids, but their parents. Their new brand: MadeGood. Today, the Canadian brand’s parent company does hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. But getting there meant rebuilding from scratch, fixing 200,000 mislabeled snack bars by hand, and turning a family of co-packers into branding experts. What you'll learn: How owning manufacturing can be a competitive edge How they grew a national brand with almost no marketing. Why it can be a winning strategy to say "yes" before you know how Introducing new products: the tension between research and emotion The mindset that can help you rebuild after a devastating setback Timestamps: 3:40 - Growing up in Iran during wartime, and emigrating to Canada 09:30 - Their dad’s new business: “Why are North Americans not eating nougat?” 17:00 - Building the family’s first snack…
People in this episode
Host: Guy Raz
Guests: Salma Fotovat, Nima Fotovat
Topics covered
- entrepreneurship
- snack industry
- business recovery
- allergen-free products
- family business
- marketing strategies
Keywords
- MadeGood
- snack giant
- allergen-free snacks
- family business
- marketing strategy
- business recovery
- Canada
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: MadeGood
Places: Canada, Iran
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